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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Winding road towards the steam

The following lines
and posts are written with the journey already some weeks ago. So details might
be mixed up and impressions more reflected or more biased. Happy reading!

This time the
accompanying wine is a Krapez Merlot 2004 from Slovenia (!). Delicious!

There was a promising
line on the map that would save us some winding kilometers going up north west
towards Lake Waikaremoana. We crossed this dirty river for the last time to
follow the Erepeti Road, later the Ohuka
Road (all dirt) and finally the to figure out that the intended road towards
the west was pretty much not useable as it ran over private farmland and was
more like a route than a road. Nevertheless the landscape for the first time on
NI became more eye-pleasing. But it was still far from eye candy…

We drove up
the Waikaretaheke River towards Lake Waikaremoana. The river looked most
attracting but based on JK it’s not worth a try. Still there might be fish in.
The foliage was nicely autumn colored as it was during the last days. Autumn
could really no longer be neglected or ignored; in addition the weather was
cloudy with some sunny patches.

We reached the lake Waikaremoana. A lake that was
very remote now in autumn, but might see considerable traffic in summer. We
followed the dirt road around its winding east shore, passed a terrific water
fall (Mokau Stream?) and continued the road curve by curve by curve – it was
green bush left and right of the dirt road and very windy.

No unfortunately we
did not camp close by in the campground but followed this dame northbound dirty snake in the bush
called raod. All bush, nature – but I was sick of it. Tobias was rather noisy,
my leg hurt from long hpurs of driving and I wanted to end this asap…. Fast
fowrad, some hours later we passed a settlement in the middle of the bush,
another hour later we passed the small village Murupara and had a stop there. I
forgot why. We wanted to accomplish the last leg towards Rotorua where we
arrived well after dark. After some research and search we found a decent motel
right on the main road. We had a simple dinner and took a late night family dip
in the hot spa on our porch.

The Lake Waikaremoana and
the surrounding Urewera NP might definitely have some appeal. At that day it
was just pain in the ass, as there was no option to fish and the landscape
nature was ok but by far not new or impressing (besides the water fall that I
really liked).

Rotorua is famous for
its hundreds of fumaroles, geysers and hot springs. The village is based on
tourism. Nothing more nothing less. The close by lake is just a lake. The
geyser areas around are all pretty much similar, if you have seen one you have
seen all. We chose the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. We walked all the
accessible tracks there and where deeply impressed by a group of ladies which
where fishing for gas bubbles that did rise from the base of one of the largest
hot springs. This looked even more contemplating than carp fishing. It might be
the next trend sport after extreme-GT-blanking (freely adopted from “Only the
river knows”). Ok serious now: The Thermal wonderland is ok, but you might
possibly be disappointed after you have seen Yellowstone.

After that touristic
program we drove a couple of kilometers south west towards one of the Broadlands
spring creeks close by. Before the fly fishing reader gets a stroke due to excitement:
these creeks are very very difficult to access. We reached a bridge over one of
the creeks I figured out, at least to have a look at. A perfect stretch of
water, weeds, eddies and some room for the back cast due to the crossing
street. I had to rig my rod and have a go right away standing on the street. It
took a while and a few casts till one of the rising fish came to my adams. Ines
helped to net it from the steep bank. Just a small rainbow (?) of something around
2-3lbs. Nice! There was another fish rising around +18meters upstream right in
a narrow section of the creek close to a willow bush. I was fixed and could not
move as the bank was too steep/swampy. I did cast again and gain but always
there where two meters or precision missing. All the time watching if a truck
was approaching on the road that I would have caught on the back-cast. Several
casts later I got a rise from the targeted fish but it did not stick to the
fly… A nice intermezzo on this creek with a nice rainbow on the sky and one on
the fly. Tobias was sleeping during the fishing in the Prado and slowly woke up
so we drove back towards Rotorua. There we had an afternoon cappuccino on the
playground right on the lake and another night in the terrific motel.

The next day I wanted
to catch the last fish of the trip and headed back towards the spring creek
area from the day before. Actually these Broadland Creeks are much closer
towards Lake Taupo than to Lake Rotorua. Parked on the road close to the first
creek I wanted to give a try and crossed over the paddocks towards the mouth of
the creek on the Waikato river. I started fishing right on the mouth and walked
out on the bank just to get stuck in the gumbo. Quickly sinking in the dirt up
to the knees, I could just get out and back to the bank. Mmm I should be more
carefully on the next try. There were several rather small fish laying in the
current. It was rather obvious that these pre-spawning trout would be hard to
entice. After a couple of minutes a man came through the bushes and thorns with
his fighting dog wearing a muzzle on a short leash. We had a friendly
conversation about the creek. He was a Scotsman who relocated some years ago.
His strong accent was obvious. It turned out that he did not only fly fish the
creek but once in a while would use a threadline. I did not understand the
reason to fish a spring creek C&R with a spinner or spoon. But after
fishing and thorn bashing this creek, loosing and recovering my net in the
thorns I got the point that fishing this creek is a challenge (there is a cut
track on the right bank some meters away from the creek that ends around thirty
meters away from the road, thus access from the mouse and then crossing might
be the best option to fish it). Very limited casting space, thorns and at that
time fish that were just not interested. I fished / walked up to the road and
left the place without a fish to my hands. The water was rather low but still
silty due to irrigation.

After a brief detour
via another spring creeks mouth (again very limited access due to private land),
I relocated to the spring creek from the day before. Again I had a few casts on
the road-pool from the day before but the good fish rising was just out of my
reach. After some consideration back and force I tried a couple of times to
wade the creek – but right beside the firm bank it was very deep (+1,8 meters) and
I would be immediately at maximum wading depth. Combined with current, rather
swampy ground and vertical banks of 1,5 meters wading was no real option. Every
time I tried to get out of the creek testing its wade ability my hands got some
additional cuts from the rough grass. So I crossed the paddocks to follow the
creek further upstream to a piece of water that looked accessible based on
google satellite images. It was semi accessible: again high or rather swampy
bank.

To my surprise I pretty much instantly spotted a fish and did not spook
it. Must have tried and Adams or a Royal Coachman. The fish came and after a
while it came to the net. A Rainbow of around 3lbs. I knew that this fish would
pretty likely be the last fish of the trip. At least the last fish was caught
on NI. A few more casts to irregular rising fish in the distance but nothing
more.

For the last time of this trip I turned around and walked back over the
paddocks, crossed the fences, reached the car, disassembled the rod, got out of
my wading gear and left the creek behind me.